Tyragetia (Dec 2020)
German names of the burial mounds of Budjak in the 19th and first half of 20th century
Abstract
The article is devoted to the unique German oronyms (names of elevated landforms) named Cannon hills or hillocks (burial mounds). According to the data discovered by the authors of the article, such names were common in the 19th and the first half of the 20th century throughout Bessarabia, especially in its southern part (Budjak). They were first mentioned here in the late 1830s by German travelers and geographers. It’s what they called all the burial mounds in the 1920-1930s in some settlements (Sarata). Individual, the highest and most significant mound hillocks in the vicinity of the German settlements of Budjak were also called Cannon hills or hillocks. Although the etymology and origin of this term remains in question, it was widely used in German linguistic circles. The names Cannon hills or hillocks are vivid examples of the German colonists’ reclamation of the cultural and historical landscapes of their new homeland in Bessarabia, which they had to leave.
